


Onryō

by lilayams



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen, Hinata doesn't go to Karasuno AU, Non-Graphic Violence, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, The rest of the vb team is in here too but they're more supporting cast, Warned as major character death cause some of the characters are literally ghosts, ghost au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2018-12-27 08:26:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12077334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilayams/pseuds/lilayams
Summary: Ever since Hinata Shouyo was a young boy, he had the ability to see the dead, but rarely did spirits interact with him. When Hinata accepts a plea of the deceased to help protect their team and avenge their death, he did not expect his promise to uncover what only seemed to be a single death.





	1. Apparition

**Author's Note:**

> I love a good ghost story, and I like Haikyuu so I thought, "might as well combine the two."  
> -PLEASE READ-  
> Just a head's up, I will add a lot more tags as the story goes on that will include themes of suicide and violence, so if you're not comfortable with those then it may not be the best to continue reading this story.  
> Typically I like to add notes at the end of the story as well, but I just wanted to warn people for the first chapter.  
> I hope you enjoy the story!  
> EDIT: I reworked this and the first chapter a little bit!

“Natsu come on! It’s getting late!” Hinata Shouyo called out to his sister who was talking to her friends on the school steps. Hinata Natsu says goodbye to her classmates and begins to sprint towards her older brother. After attacking him with a trademark hug which nearly knocks both Shouyo and the bike over, she hops onto the back of her brother’s bike, standing on the pegs.

“It’s not like I’m the one who came over late!” Natsu sticks her tongue out at him. “What took you so long anyway?”

“I have soccer now remember?” Shouyo sighs, “It was nice for Kouji to help me try out but I don’t think I like soccer that much! Coach says I need to work on dribbling.” Shouyo had always been gifted with a boundless amount of energy but no sport or any other kind of extracurricular activity had particularly stuck with him.

“I think I did pretty good at goal keeping today though. I think I even surprised Kouji when I jumped up to catch his attack.” Shouyo smiles to himself pridefully. Being shorter than most kids all his life has made it hard for him to try out in certain sports clubs, but it did make his athletic ability more noticeable to those who underestimated him.

“Although… assistant Saitou says I should stop blocking with my face.” Natsu laughs loudly at her brother’s confession.

“What if you join basketball? You can be like the team’s rabbit!”

Hinata scrunches his face at the idea of being called a rabbit, “That sounds more like I’d be a mascot. Besides, I don’t really find basketball interesting either.”

“I think you’re just jealous of the tall guys Shouyo!”

“I can turn this bike around you know!” However, Shouyo’s threat was empty, and Natsu continued to laugh at her jape.

Natsu and Shouyo’s schools were closely located, a part of the reason why Shouyo chose to go to Furukawa High. Furukawa was the high school closest to home as well as Natsu’s elementary, which made it a more reasonable choice than other high schools like say, Tokonami or Karasuno, but it was still a bit of a commute. The sibling’s usual route consisted of passing through a small-town shopping district and a park before making an uphill climb to their community, which occasionally caught the siblings attention before they made it home.

“Nii-san turn around! Maya-san’s shop is selling chocolate melonpan today!”

Today being one of them.

“Natsu, there’s food at home!” Shouyo whines, trying to convince her sister not to detour them on their way back home. The color of the streets already matched the sibling’s hair colors, tinted by the slowly setting sun. “Please!” Natsu begins to whine and shake the bike around, causing Shouyo to start losing control of the bike.

“Okay, okay!” Shouyo shouts back at his sister, “Let me just turn around and-“

As Shouyo returns his gaze to the front of the bike, he hits the brakes as fast as possible. The bike begins to skid and slide, but luckily both Hinatas fall into a soft patch of grass instead of the street or sidewalk. Shouyo, in a panic, quickly gets up from the crash, and runs towards his sister.

“Ah! N-Natsu are you okay?” It was more of a shout than a question, but Natsu gives her brother a quick nod and a hum of confirmation. Hinata then gets up from the ground and runs towards the middle of the empty street, to where he sees a kneeling dark-haired figure, the one he stopped for, the one he almost crashed into. Shouyo kneels next to him and catches his gaze.

“Are you alright?” Shouyo asks concerned, noticing the figure clutching his chest. The dark-haired figure looks at him in surprise. Their blue eyes widen and his arms lower, revealing a bloodied shirt, and a few holes where the rest of their chest should be.

“You can see me?”


	2. Familiar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata learns a little more about Kageyama.

“Yeah.” Is the only response Shouyo could really give him. 

The two kneel in the middle of the empty road and stare at each other, seemingly incredulous of each other’s existence. Shouyo had not been aware of it before, but even with the dramatic lighting of the falling sunset behind them, the figure hadn’t casted any sort of shadow. The building’s in the distance were also visible through the figures body, as if he weren’t entirely opaque. 

“Am I actually,” the wounded figure grasps at his chest, “dead?” 

His question came out as more of a statement than a question really. Hinata gave the figure a sympathetic look, eyebrows lifted, the sides of his mouth forming into a crooked, apologetic smile. 

“Yeah.” 

The figure stares down at the wound in his chest again. His studying begins to build resolve in his features. He lifts his head up towards Shouyo again. 

“I think,” he begins, “no, I need your help.” 

“W-What do you mean-“

“Shouyo! I’m hungry!” 

Breaking the tension between the two of them, Natsu, Shouyo’s sister, begins yelling.

Natsu makes her way over to the center of the street where the two people kneel, however she only gives attention to one. The dark-haired haired figure flinches when Natsu stands in the spot where he kneels, his body completely cellophane to Natsu’s physical one. She turns to her brother with her hands on her hips and scrunches her nose at him.

“Did you hit your head or something when we fell? You’re acting weird again.” 

Shouyo, reaches into his pocket and manages to scrounge up some pocket money, and hands it to his siter.

“Here, you can run to Maya’s really quick, I’ll check out the bicycle and meet up with you later.”

Satisfied with his answer, Natsu takes the money and sprints towards the storefront. With his sister literally out of the ghost’s way, Shouyo turns his attention back to them. 

“I’ll be honest, this is new to me. I haven’t ever really talked to a ghost before, but you’re not attacking me, or I hope you won’t, so I want to help you.” Shouyo gives the figure a smile, but his eyebrows remained furrowed, reasonably worried about meeting a literal dead man walking. 

The two stand up and walk towards the bike. Luckily nothing had been broken, but there was some scratches form the impact. 

“My name is uh, Kageyama Tobio.” Kageyama reached his hand out for a handshake before quickly lowering it realizing the contact would probably go through Shouyo’s body. Shouyo quickly caught on he was a bit awkward, but it made him relax a lot more. 

“I’m Hinata Shouyo!” Hinata began introducing himself, “I’m a first year at Furukawa high.”

Kageyama’s eyes widened in interest, “I’m a… I was a freshman too, at Karasuno.”

“Oh, cool…” Hinata deadpans, honestly being more upset at how much taller another freshman was than him than Kageyama’s change of present to past-tense. 

The two began walking side by side with Hinata’s bike, walking up to where Hinata’s sister was waiting.

“Psst,” Hinata caught Kageyama’s attention, “I can’t really talk to you without my sister thinking I’m some sort of crazy. Let’s continue later.” Kageyama responds with a nod. 

Natsu reprimands Shouyo about being late again and the three figures walk towards the Hinata family household. 

The two Hinata siblings enter their home just as sky turns dark blue and greet their mother who had begun to prepare dinner for them. Throughout the whole routine, Kageyama shuffles awkwardly through the house, not wandering too far so as not to seem rude but definitely not staying close enough to make the family dynamic feel uncomfortable. Noticing this, Hinata then begins walk towards his room, making sure to subtly signal Kageyama to follow him. And when Kageyama wonders exactly why Shouyo is flapping his hands around slowly, Shouyo begins to wave his arms dramatically towards the ghost in a circular motion to make sure he understands.

“Nii-san what are you doing?” Natsu looks at her brother making a fool of himself in the living room.

“Just, hm, airing out.” Shouyo ‘explains.’

“Gross! Go take a bath then stinky.” Natsu teases and sticks her tongue out at him before walking back towards their mother.

Shouyo sticks his tongue back at her as she leaves. The two boys enter Shouyo’s room, and Shouyo breathes a sigh of relief.

“Okay, as long as I’m in this room I can pretend I’m talking to a friend on the phone!”

“What’s wrong with talking to me normally?”

“I don’t want my family to think I’m crazy! Besides, do you want a repeat of what happened in the living room, or the street?” Kageyama responds with what sounded like an understanding grunt. 

Shouyo takes a futon from his closet and lays it out on the floor next to his bed, spreading out the bedding neatly.

“You can sleep here! It’ll be like a sleepover.” Shouyo said excitedly, patting the futon.

“You know I can’t physically get under the covers, right?”

“You look like you can touch the floor. That’s close enough.” Hinata shrugs. Kageyama stares at him unamused but can’t help but think at the back of his mind that Hinata has a point. 

“Besides, it feels weird if I made you sleep on the floor or something. Natsu likes sleeping in my room sometimes anyway so no one will question why I put the futon out.”

Kageyama sat down on the futon, and despite his inability to actually feel the material, it was the most ‘at-home’ he had felt in a while. Definitely better than wandering the streets confused.

“Do you like it?” Hinata asks, wide eyed. Kageyama couldn’t help but try and respond politely with a quick, ‘yes,’ a pat to the cushions, and what appeared to be a small smile attempting to form on the side of his lips.

“Good!” Hinata falls back on his own bed and chuckles for a moment before sitting up again to talk to Kageyama, “I don’t think I’ve ever met a ghost as friendly as you.” In a way, this relaxed Kageyama. He does not remember if he actually had a sleepover before, but if this is how it usually went he thinks he could get used to staying with Hinata for a while.

“So uh,” Kageyama, started, attempting to make small talk, “what do you want to know about- “

“Shouyo! It’s dinner time!” Hinata’s mother shouts from the kitchen, interrupting Kageyama. Both Hinata and Kageyama stood up quickly at the call for food. “Oh, uh,” Hinata looks over to Kageyama, “I guess you can stay here while I eat?”

“Oh,” Kageyama had completely forgotten he couldn’t eat anymore, and sat back down on the futon, a little disappointed, “Okay.”

“While I’m out, just make yourself at home!” Hinata told Kageyama, before closing the door.

Kageyama, alone in Hinata’s room looks around, wondering exactly what kind of person Hinata was. How can he see ghosts? What’s with the orange hair? …Does he like volleyball? Hinata’s room was a somewhat unkempt. The bed wasn’t made, there was some obvious marks on the furniture, and there was a bit of laundry thrown around, but aside from that it was a comfortable looking room. A picture on Hinata’s desk catches his eye, considering the rest of his desk appeared unused and sparsely decorated with a few novelty items and untouched textbooks. Kageyama stands up from the futon and walks towards the image to get a closer look. The picture was of Hinata and what looked like two of his friends playing soccer. So Hinata was a soccer player?

After twenty minutes or so, Kageyama had begun to occupy himself by playing detective, the case being: ‘What the hell was Hinata Shouyo’s after school activity?’ After finding numerous equipment including soccer shoes, a baseball bat, and even a tennis racquet, Kageyama was beginning to feel a hopeful that maybe Hinata knew a little about volleyball and Kageyama could actually hold a conversation with him. This would make working with him a lot easier. If Hinata had a position what would he be? Libero seems accurate. He is short, and seems to have a lot of energy considering he still bikes all the way home after school. Before Kageyama could contemplate about what Hinata’s favorite pro player could possibly be, Hinata enters the room.

“Sorry if I took long!” Kageyama replies that he didn’t mind. The two then sit on the futon together.

“So, what do you want me to know about the whole,” Hinata gestures vaguely to Kageyama’s incorporeal body, “situation.”

“Well first of all, don’t call my literal death a ‘situation.’” Kageyama replies indignantly.

“Oh, ah, sorry!” Hinata quickly apologizes. It was his first time to actually communicate with a ghost, so he was not exactly sure how formal or informal he could go with questions, “So how did your um, death, happen anyway?” Hinata’s tone became more solemn as his sentence went on.

“I died,” Kageyama began, “after volleyball practice.”

* * *

 

“Good job, Kageyama!” A brash upperclassman, gave him a hard slap on the back. Kageyama, rubbed the area of impact, but was nevertheless proud of the praise his team gave him. He did not have much experience of it in middle school.

Kageyama was only a freshman at Karasuno high, but it seemed as though everything was going perfectly in his volleyball club. Aside from a couple of rude comments from another freshman, the team appreciated his skill level, and were becoming increasingly confident about their goal to enter nationals. As the team was cooling down, the coach (for the time being), a grandson of the former school’s coach Ukai, reminded them of the practice match with their former rivals, Nekoma, coming up soon.

“Kageyama do you want to get some pork buns with us?” Another one of his upperclassmen offered him, and while he was a sucker for food he declined their request.

“Sorry, I actually wanted to get more practice time in.” His senpai reacted with a lighthearted laugh before giving him a set of the gym’s keys and leaving.

“Remember to lock up when you’re done!” With that, Kageyama was left on his own in the gym.

After becoming satisfied with his accuracy practice, Kageyama decided it was time to head home. While he did want to stay and practice a while longer, he didn’t want to sleep in the gym. There was always practice the morning after anyways. Kageyama quickly cleaned up whatever materials he had left out, and locked the gym’s doors. Looking around the school, it seemed that the sun was nearly set. Perhaps he took longer in the gym than he thought he did.

The station from his home was not too far from the school anyways, he had jogged there several times. However, the lack of sunlight made things less noticeable, and Kageyama had never been the most perceptive person. After making a right turn at where he thought was the shopping district by the Shimada Mart, Kageyama found himself lost.

Kageyama began to wander along the roadside. He was, or at least he hoped he was, tracing his steps backwards. He was about to pull his phone out to call someone when he saw a buildings lights flicker in the distance. Perhaps it was that bar close to the Sakanoshita store. If that was the case then he was not too far from the station. All he had to do was go in the direction of the light’s.

That’s when he felt someone tug him backwards.

* * *

 

“After that, I felt a sharp pain in my chest.” Kageyama put a hand to his chest where his form retained the wound.

“While I was on the ground I saw a man step over me. Mumbling something about ‘those other kids.’ After a while I found that I could move again, so I wandered a while, but since I was panicking I got lost again. I guess I walked all the way to your school district.” Kageyama finishes his story, Hinata looking at him with concern.

“What you said about the man though. When you said he mentioned other kids, do you think maybe, he could target other people at Karasuno?”

“I think so,” Kageyama responds quickly, “that’s why I need you to warn the school to be careful. Especially my team.”

“You must be pretty close to them then, huh?”

Kageyama fiddles with his hair, “Well to be honest, I didn’t get to know them too well. But they were nice to me. I don’t think I’d want anyone else to be hurt, especially if it ruins their chances of making it to nationals.”

Kageyama jumps up remembering nationals.

“That’s right! How much do you know about volleyball?” Hinata looks at him questioningly.

“There is… a ball.” Kageyama deflates at Hinata’s lackluster response.

“Well the only way the school would probably let you see the team is if you said you know me,” Kageyama seemed to be hatching up a plan, “and the only way to prove that is to prove you know about volleyball.” Hinata, startled at Kageyama’s sudden insistence that he needed to learn, begins to drop his eye contact with Kageyama.

“A-Are you that much of a dedicated player?”

“Yes.” Kageyama replied, matter-of-factly.

Seeing Hinata’s intimidated expression made him relent, however, “I-If you want, you could tell me about soccer, or baseball, or whatever you play.” Perhaps he came on too strong.

“Ah, to be honest, I’m not too interested in those sports,” Hinata rubs his neck embarrassed, “but I do like being active! I just never really found any activity that stuck with me.” With Hinata’s confession of disinterest in other sports, Kageyama grew excited once more.

“Then maybe you’ll like volleyball.”

The two boys continued to discuss their plan of action. It seemed Hinata had a long day ahead of him, as he was going to have to peddle all the way to Karasuno. Luckily for him, Natsu was going to get a carpool ride back with her friend tomorrow, which meant one less thing for Hinata to do. At around ten, the two boys decided to rest for the night, not at all influenced by Hinata’s sister banging the door and telling Shouyo to ‘hang up on your friend already, I’m trying to get some sleep!’

“Can ghost’s even sleep?” Kageyama questions, ‘lying down’ on the futon.

“Well I guess you can figure that out now.” Kageyama gave an agreeable hum and appeared to shift to make himself as comfortable as he could, floating on top of the covers.

“Goodnight, Kageyama.” Hinata says, before turning over and pulling his covers up.

“Goodnight.” Kageyama replies.


	3. Poltergeist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata remembers his past.  
> The boys take a trip to Karasuno High.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while since my last update.  
> Just in time for Halloween though!

Hinata Shouyo ran as fast as he could. He was always good at running, but he was starting to lose his breath.

The woman behind him followed, undeterred despite the heavy looking robes she wore. Hinata searched desperately for a place to hide, but it was dark, and the skyline was covered by thick forest. If only he had not strayed from the path, perhaps the woman would not have found him. The young boy began to cry, in fear that the woman may catch up to him, and his vision blurred with tears. Yet, he continued to run hoping for any sign of shelter.

Hinata bumped into something, and fell to the ground. After clearing his eyes, he looked back quickly at the woman, to see that she was still there, but did not continue to chase him. Instead, she just stood there. Hinata then realized that he had run into a post, and was in the area of Shiogama shrine. There were several people around, yet none of them seemed to take notice of the oddly dressed woman who stood beyond the gate.

“What are you doing on the ground?” Hinata looked up to see a girl, about his age standing next to him, looking worried.

“There’s a lady who was chasing me see!” Hinata turned around to point where the woman who continued to wait beyond the gate.

“You seem kind of weird… but here,” the young girl gave him a slip of paper with some characters written on it, “just in case you’re not crazy. My auntie says it protects you from evil spirits.” The young girl smiled at him sheepishly.

Hinata clutched the charm tightly, readying himself to turn around and check if the woman was still there before a shout interrupted his thoughts.

“Shouyo! There you are!” The two children turned to look at a woman, maybe in her early 30’s running towards them, looking both relieved and distressed. It was Hinata’s mother.

“Don’t run off on your own again! I was worried sick!” Hinata’s mother scooped the boy up into her arms.

“How did you get to the shrine anyway?”

“I was just running around and ended up lost in the forest and then suddenly there was that woman over there who- “

“A woman was chasing you Shouyo?”

“There! There!” Hinata pointed towards the woman who was chasing him, still waiting outside the gate, and looked to his mother in worry. However, she stared back confused.

“Shouyo, there’s no one there.”

* * *

 

Hinata Shouyo sat up, breathing quickly. He began to look around, panicking. As his eyes adjusted to the dark of his room, he began to slowly realize he was safe.

“I haven’t had that nightmare in a while.” The day Hinata Shouyo first found out he could see ghosts was not one he looked back on kindly. It kind of scarred his childhood, actually. He later found that he could also see other ghosts, but none of them seemed to interact with him like that lady at Shiogama did. At least none of them until…

Hinata tensed, and slowly turned his head over towards the floor next to his bed. Seeing Kageyama, who appeared to be sleeping (which does mean that ghosts can sleep, apparently), Hinata exhaled long breath of air that he did not know he had been holding.

Kageyama was perhaps the most cordial encounter of ghost-kind that Hinata had ever interacted with. Most of them walked along, uninterested, and held morbid faces; like the kind of ghosts that you saw in movies. There was something about Kageyama that still feel alive, even with the obvious wound in his chest. What exactly about Kageyama makes him different, makes him even be able to talk to Hinata?

Did the woman from Shiogama feel alive as well?

Hinata shook the thoughts from his head. Whatever Kageyama is, he is definitely not a malevolent being, and he needed Hinata’s help.

Hinata laid back down, facing towards Kageyama. Kageyama’s sleeping expression was a lot calmer than it was while he was awake, and despite not having to breathe he let out a couple of soft snoring noises. Hinata could not help but smile at this. With it in mind, Hinata began to once more, drift to sleep.

* * *

 

“Did I really have to follow you to school?” Kageyama, bored out of his mind, asks a half-asleep Hinata.

“Well we’re going to Karasuno straight after, besides you owe me for not telling me you could’ve just floated while I biked, instead of just having me walk all the way back to my house yesterday.” Hinata replies.

“I didn’t know that at the time!” Hinata only yawns in response to Kageyama’s counter.

“It was the last class of the day anyway, all you need to do is wait as I go to soccer practice.”

“Didn’t you tell your friend you were going to be out?”

“Only for the latter half. I think the coach might kill me on the spot if I skipped a whole day without notice.” Hinata shivers at the thought. Kageyama takes note of his dedication to participating to the sport, even if it is out of fear.

Hinata changes quickly into his practice uniform, a dark blue shirt with white diagonal stripes accenting it, and matching shorts.

“Do I look cool?” Hinata jokes, asking Kageyama.

“You look like a blueberry.” Kageyama responded flatly.

“Hey! You look like more of a blueberry than I do!” Kageyama scrunched his nose at the response, but before the two could get into a spat, Hinata was called by his friend to join the team.

Kageyama was a volleyball fan through and through, and watching Hinata’s soccer team run their drills only confirmed this fact. A sport where you’re not allowed touch the ball with your hands? Kageyama couldn’t imagine playing that way. Admittedly the footwork was admirable. Maybe Kageyama would have admired it even more if Hinata wasn’t so obviously terrible at it. The boy stumbled and tripped over his feet quite often. His speed seemed to be his only merit.

…Kageyama would remember that.

The coach blew a whistle and the team moved to line up in front of the soccer goal. It seemed they were now practicing what was called ‘shooting drills.’ To Kageyama’s surprise, Hinata did not group up with the rest of the team, but instead moved in front of the goal, facing his team. The coach blew his whistle again, and the rest of the team began to kick soccer balls towards the net. Hinata did fairly well defending, but still tended to trip over himself. Kageyama mentally crossed out ‘libero’ in his mental ‘list of what volleyball position Hinata could possibly take.’

Kageyama, tired of watching, was not sure whether he should stay and wait outside or move towards the locker rooms, until one team member kicks the ball way over the goal post. The other team mates groan, knowing the drawbacks to an out of bounds ball, and also knowing someone would have to go out and fetch it from beyond the field. However, their suffering is interrupted by a loud “I’ve got it!” Hinata jumps up above the net, able to reach the ball with the tips of his fingers. The contact being just enough to get the ball to bounce down, and back towards the field. 

“Augh! Why do you have to kick the ball so hard Fumi?” Hinata begins to shake his fingers in order to relieve himself of the pain. Other team members, including the coach gave him some quick thanks for saving the ball from going out of bounds.

Kageyama, however, kept his focus on Hinata.

“So, he can jump.”

* * *

In the middle of practice, Hinata excuses himself from the team, and they wave him goodbye. The boy runs towards the lockers along with Kageyama.

“So, how’d you like soccer?” Hinata asks, genuinely curious.

“It was alright.” Kageyama responds plainly.

“Just alright?”

“To be honest, I’ll always prefer volleyball.” Hinata sighs, but nonetheless smiles at Kageyama’s response.

“Of course. You are a volleyball junkie after all.”

The two boys make it to the locker room and Hinata takes a quick shower before changing back into his regular school uniform.

“You know,” Kageyama starts as Hinata pulls on his shirt, “I think you’d like volleyball better too.”

Hinata raises an eyebrow at him, “what makes you say that?”

“When you caught the ball at practice,” Kageyama waves his arm to mirror Hinata’s movement at the moment, “it was almost like a spike.”

“Ah, yeah, I guess.” Hinata never thought of that as anything special, just him catching some kick that was way too high up, but Kageyama’s enthusiasm makes him feel pretty special, he couldn’t help but blush.

“You’ll see what I mean when we get to Karasuno.” Kageyama nods at him, determined to show Hinata what he sees in volleyball.

Hinata smiles at him in response, and the two make their way over to Karasuno High School.

* * *

 

Hinata and Kageyama enter Karasuno’s gym. One silver-haired boy was tossing the volleyball to another group of boys that are practicing what Kageyama had previously explained to Hinata as ‘spikes’. Hinata scoots along the side of the gym, in order to reach the person who appears to be team’s faculty advisor. While a few looks are thrown in his direction, the team focuses mainly on their practice. Finally, Hinata reaches the advisor.

“Excuse me, um- “

“Takeda-san. And who might you be? Do you want to join the team?” The teacher beams at him, which makes Hinata feel guilty for what he was about to say.

“A-Ah, no! I go to a different school. I was a… I was a friend of Kageyama’s. I wanted to talk to the team after practice.” Takeda’s demeanor noticeably dampens at Hinata’s introduction. Despite retaining his smile, it is now held more out of pity than friendliness.

“Of course. They’re taking it hard too though. Not to say that you aren’t! It’s just,” Takeda adjusts his glasses, pondering how to phrase his sympathies, “in a single memory there may lie a commonality in many.”

After seeing Hinata tilt his head and stare at him in confusion, Takeda elaborates.

“It’s a sensitive topic for them as well, I’m sure you understand. I’m truly am sorry for your loss, I’m sure he was a wonderful friend.” Takeda nods towards Hinata politely. Hinata nods back at Takeda solemnly. Even with Kageyama standing next to him, Kageyama was still dead to these people.

“Why don’t you take a seat, while you wait.” Takeda offers him his own folding chair and leaves to get a new one for himself.

All members of Karasuno appear pretty driven to practice, well, most of them anyway. The tallest member at the back looks like he’s ready for practice to end, and his movements slacken the longer practice serves went on. As Hinata waits out their practice, Kageyama explains to him all of the moves his team was pulling off, and even critiques some of the members.

During what appears to be a break, the silver-haired volleyball member Hinata saw earlier, a built looking member with dark short-cropped hair, and a bald rowdy looking member walks over to him. “Ah, Hinata was it?” The short haired player addresses him. He appears friendly, and holds a respectable atmosphere around him, “I’m the team’s Captain, Sawamura, Daichi. You said you were Kageyama’s friend, right?” Hinata was surprised at how calm the captain appears. His own team’s captain seemed to do nothing but yell at him. “Y-Yes.” Hinata responds with a nod.

“Well,” the silver-haired upperclassman next to Captain Sawamura begins, “I know you don’t know us, but we understand your pain. I hope that’s not too insensitive of me to say but- “the silver-haired upper classman appears to be getting choked up a bit, and the rowdy looking upperclassman cuts in.

“They know what it’s like to lose a close friend of theirs’.”

The five figures hold a strong silence together.

“Something’s not right here.” Kageyama speaks up, causing Hinata to flinch at the sudden voice. The Karasuno upperclassmen look at him because of this.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Takeda-san said you came here because you had something to say to us, right?” The captain asks, trying not to sound too melancholy.

“I just wanted to know if you were staying safe?” Hinata’s voice drifts a bit at the end, losing confidence.

The captain gives him a re-assuring smile, “We walk back in groups now, and we’re not permitting anyone to practice alone past scheduled time. Even then no one really takes the chance at staying late anymore. Police are still investigating, and well, that area is out of our hands.”

With this, Hinata smiles at them in relief.

Kageyama is not satisfied, however.

The two walk out after getting their answer, Hinata making a quick detour to the bathroom, with Kageyama leading the way.

“I didn’t think they’d miss me that much.” Kageyama says, staring at the ground.

“It is surprising considering you’ve only attended Karasuno for a few months.”

“That’s what I’m saying,” Kageyama turns to Hinata, “Wing-spiker senpai said something about Daichi and Suga having lost a close friend, and I don’t think he was talking about me.” Hinata’s eyes widen at the realization, then squints at Kageyama.

“Wing-spiker senpai?” Kageyama’s face flushes red immediately.

“I-I’m not the best with names… I think he was Takahashi or something like that…”

“I can’t believe they’re grieving you Kageyama, that’s so mean…” Hinata teases. Kageyama responds with a couple of shallow insults back at Hinata. The two make their destination and after Hinata’s bathroom break, stay inside to further elaborate on the topic beforehand without drawing attention to Hinata for talking to air.

“Judging from the looks of my senpai’s faces, it seemed as though it wouldn’t have been something that happened long ago, wing-spiker senpai knew about it as well. It doesn’t seem to be common knowledge to the rest of my year though, I definitely hadn’t heard about it.”

The pair begin to ponder on what this information could possibly mean for a while.

“If there might have been someone that, died, like you did, what are we going to do about it?” Hinata asks Kageyama.

“You don’t have to,” Kageyama began, “I know this is a lot to ask, but I would appreciate it if you could help me find out who my killer was.”

Hinata looks at him in horror, “Kageyama… what are you- “

The door to the restroom opens. The tall member from the volleyball team enters the restroom. He wore thick lensed glasses and stood out, not just because of his height, but also because of his blond hair. Behind him was another member, who though, not as tall as the bespectacled student, is much taller than Hinata. Freckles adorned his face noticeably. The two had seemed to be talking on their way to the restroom, but all speech from both parties had stops upon meeting each other.

The freckled boy walks into a stall, his taller teammate however, stands to the side.

Hinata waves at the bespectacled member awkwardly, the taller, not sure what to do, half-heartedly waves back. His face showing that he does not want to be in this situation. Hinata moves to the sink to wash his hands so as not to look like some weird kid hanging out in the bathroom alone.

“As I was saying before,” Kageyama continues, “I just want you to help find clues about what happened to me.”

With the tall member standing in the bathroom with them, Hinata is left unable to do anything but listen to Kageyama and attempt to keep himself from responding.

“I’m not asking you to face anything dangerous, I just want you to ask around the area, maybe if anyone had seen the figure I described last night.”

It sounded awfully dangerous to Hinata. He began to hum irritably to himself now, furrowing his brows. The tall student could not help but turn his attention to him.

“You don’t have to go at night at all. Although it definitely would help.”

“I can’t do that.” Hinata tried to whisper, though it came out more as a hiss. The taller student now squinting at him. Hinata has been washing his hands for about two minutes now.

“I… It’s a lot to ask for I know. I don’t have anyone else to turn to though, and I’m not sure who else to ask. Retracing my steps with someone who could actually ask around would help me and- “

“Kageyama, I said I can’t do- “

“Kageyama?” Hinata freezes under the glare of the volleyball member.

Hinata moves his hands to turn off the faucet, then turns around to look at the tall player.

“I- I was- “

Hinata is cut off again with the sound of flushing, and the freckled member steps out and walks over to the sink next to Hinata, looking as uncomfortable as the red head. The freckled boy washes his hands as quickly as possible in order to remove himself from the situation, and looks over at his tall friend.

“Come on Tsukki we should probably get going.” He says, as an attempt to defuse the situation. The two begin to move towards the exit. The bathroom door swings open once more and when Kageyama hears receding footsteps, he takes his chance to convince Hinata again.

“You wouldn’t even have to stay out late.”

“Kageyama I said I’m not going to!” Hinata finally rebukes.

“Is this a joke to you?” Hinata’s body stiffens again, and Kageyama glares at the figure behind him.

The taller student still appears to be holding the bathroom door open. The freckle student, already a ways out, and probably wishing he could have walked faster.

“Tsukki, let’s go.” The freckled team member attempts to ease the tension again, but the taller of the two, ‘Tsukki’ steps forward.

“You realize everyone back at that gym has been taking this hard?”

Hinata slowly turns to face ‘Tsukki,’ a look of fear and embarrassment showing on his features.

Kageyama balls his fists in frustration.

“If you’ve just been joking about this the whole time, then don’t bother coming back.”

“He hasn’t been.” Kageyama practically growls, of course, none of this reaching Tsukki. Hinata, unfortunately, turns to look in his direction out of instinct, and immediately regrets it upon hearing Tsukki make an annoyed grunt in response to his action.

Kageyama could not help but feel both guilt and frustration for putting Hinata in this situation and being unable to do anything about it.

If only he could get the other’s attention somehow.

“C’mon Yamaguchi, let’s go.”

“Wait a minute!” Kageyama yells, slamming his fist on the bathroom counter.

The three other bodies look towards the counter and stares in confusion at the noise. Tsukki and Yamaguchi turn to look at Hinata again.

“Did you seriously just- “

“ **Shut up!** ” Kageyama shouts once more, slamming his fist on the counter again, this time followed by a bit of the bathroom mirror cracking, and his voice echoing off the bathroom walls.

Kageyama flinches from the damage. He didn’t think he had swung his fist down that hard. The other three bodies stand, perplexed and wide eyed. Hinata looks to Kageyama just as surprised, and opens his mouth in question, only to be interrupted by a shriek.

“Th- The mirror!” The freckled Karasuno player, Yamaguchi, shouts, while pointing at the mirror Hinata and Kageyama are currently standing in front of.

Hinata follows the finger to look at the mirror in order see exactly what Yamaguchi is reacting to.

“Kageyama,” Hinata begins to exclaim, “You have a reflection!”


End file.
